Around Christmas time every year in New York my friend Diane throws a potato pancake party. In the eight years or so that I’ve known her, I’ve seen those potato pancakes evolve. This year she nailed it: they were rich and light, crispy and potatoey. The best ever.

My small contribution to the party was homemade applesauce. There really is no good reason to buy commercial applesauce, because homemade is not only ridiculously easy to make, but superior in both taste and texture. At the potato pancake party, Diane’s guests ignored the sour cream and instead, loaded up on applesauce.

I had some left over, and with it made an old-fashioned applesauce cake with walnuts and white raisins that had a real holiday feel to it (I just made it yesterday but it is mostly gone now, the crumbled remains being what is left after the teenagers raided the kitchen in the wee hours).

Here are the recipes:

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Applesauce
Makes 3-4 pints
The best tasting applesauce is made from sweet apples, not tart apples like Granny Smiths, and a combination of sweet apples is even better. If you make applesauce with tart apples, you will have to add sugar, sometimes a lot. But you may find a combination of sweet apples will need no sugar at all.

Quarter the apples and remove the seeds, but leave on the skins. Pour the apple juice or cider into the bottom of a big pot. (You can use plain water, too.) Add enough water to produce a generous 2 inches of liquid in the pot. Add the apples, cover, and place over a medium low heat. Cook until the apples are soft, about 15 minutes.

Allow the apples to cool, and then press them through a food mill. (If you don’t have a food mill, consider getting one: it is very useful tool and inexpensive, too.)

Taste the applesauce. Add the cinnamon to your taste, ditto the sugar as you may or may not think the sauce needs it. You can also have some fun: spike the applesauce with calvados, orange zest, nutmeg…none of which will affect the processing instructions.

Have ready 4 very clean pint jars and bands, with new lids that have been simmered in hot water for a few minutes to soften the rubberized flange. (You can also do ½ pints, or a combination of pints and half pints—the processing time remains the same.)

Pour the sauce into very clean pint jars, leaving ½ inch headroom. Place on the lids and screw on the bands fingertip tight. Place in a deep pot with a rack (a rack is preferable, but honestly I rarely use my big canner for small batch canning—I just use my pasta pot even though it doesn’t have a rack) and cover with water by 2 to 3 inches.

Bring the water to a boil and process the jars for 10 minutes at sea level, adding 1 minute for every 1,000 feet above sea level.

Remove the jars and allow to cool. Check the seals and store in a cool dark place for up to a year. There may be some oxidation with applesauce—meaning the top of the applesauce inside the jar made darken. It’s okay. Refrigerate after opening.

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Old-Fasioned Applesauce Cake

Old-Fashioned Applesauce Cake
Makes a 9-inch tube cake

This recipe doubles very well. You can substitute currants, pecans, dried cranberries, cherries, and bits of dried apricots if you like, but keep to the quantities in the recipe or the cake will be heavy. As it is, this cake is light and spicy. I serve it with whipped cream, but a confectioner’s sugar glaze would be good, or even something as luscious as cream cheese or fudge frosting.

In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the applesauce and combine. The batter make look curdled—it’s okay.

Sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and baking soda.

Remove two tablespoons of the flour mixture and place in a small bowl. Toss the walnuts and raisins in this flour.

Mix the flour into the batter and combine well, but do not beat beyond combining or the crumb of cake will be less delicate. Stir in the vanilla and the flour-coated fruit and nut mixture.

Pour the batter into a buttered and floured 9-inch tube pan. Tap the pan on your counter to distribute the batter evenly. Bake for about 45 minutes, until you can smell the cake and a knife inserted into the cakes comes out clean. Allow to cool. Then turn over onto a rack to complete cooling.

Frost or serve with a dollop of sweetened whip cream. (You can add a little calvados to the whipped cream, too.)

Note: I used my own homemade vanilla extract. It is not quite as strong as commercial, so you may want to add about ¾ of a teaspoon of commercial extract.

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Potato Pancakes with Homemade Applesauce

Aunt Lois’ Potato Pancakes
Makes 16 pancakes
The trick to these pancakes is to do them in small batches. Diane knocks herself out to make a hundred of them for a party, but I think 16 pancakes for 4 people are perfect. They make a great side dish, and are wonderful with a piece of broiled fish on top.

Peel the potatoes and grate on the large holes of the grater. Long pieces are best. Place the potatoes in a bowl and toss with the onions. Add the dry ingredients and toss well. This may take a bit of time—you don’t want the dry ingredients to be well distributed. Add the eggs and combine well.

In the meantime, heat about an inch of oil in a nonstick frying pan over a high heat. Test the heat by inserting a little piece of potato in the oil. If it bubbles, the oil is ready.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop up a spoonful of the potato mixture, allowing the excess liquid to drain off. Drop the spoonful of potatoes into the oil.

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Let the pancakes cook until just golden underneath

Fry for about 2 minutes on each side, until they are just golden.

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Turn the pancakes over when they are just golden

Do not flip over a pancake until it is golden on the downside, otherwise they may fall apart and be greasy. They will not be cooked through. It’s okay. As you get toward the bottom of the bowl the potatoes will be wetter. They will take a bit of pressing to remove more liquid, and will take a bit longer to cook.

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These are draining, and ready to freeze or go ahead and bake

Drain on paper towels.

You can refrigerate or freeze the pancakes at this point, for up to two months.

To serve, preheat the oven to 350F.

Place the pancakes on a baking tray and cook for about 10 minutes on each side. They will turn a rich golden brown. They may need to be dried on a paper towel before serving.

Eugenia Bone, a veteran food writer who has published in many national magazines and newspapers, is also a cookbook author. She is the author of Well-Preserved (Clarkson Potter 2009). She has contributed to many cookbooks and a few literary journals, been nominated for a variety of food writing awards and participated in radio, interactive and online interviews, in addition to appearing multiple times on television. She lives in New York City and Crawford, Colo.

The secret to tasty food is homemade and seasonal. To do that, you've got to put up food. Well-Preserved reports on small batch preservation year round, and generates recipes from those preserved foods.